Then on reflection I apologise unreservedly. It was in bad taste and I am sorry

You are an absolutely disgusting excuse for a human being. Hopefully Karma will see you right.

Regards

King James

Call Me God, whilst making his point in the wrong way, does actually have a point though.

We can live in a little RL bubble sometimes and not realise how little attention most people pay to RL.

Whilst there’s lots we need to do in RL, I think it’s worth realising the same is true for other sports. Even football is losing some of its wider appeal in my opinion. People don’t sit down and watch the FA Cup Final for instance like they used to.

Most people’s exposure to sport is on tv and tv viewing is becoming much more compartmentalised as people cherry pick what they watch rather than just watching what is on. They also want to watch it when they want, not just when it’s on.

So it’s not just RL that’s losing some cross appeal but we’re not able to withstand it well or make it up elsewhere. The only exception to this appears to be international sport. That seems to still appeal. Which is why I think we need to prioritise internationals over the domestic game.

It was a somewhat stupid post and certainly in bad taste, but why the comments now 4 hours after he's apologised for it? We all do and say daft things, and let's move on now.

Fair play. No one’s perfect and I’m sure, in hindsight, that you didn’t mean it in the way it came across.

Football losing some of its wider appeal?

You must be joking. It's just had its best ever World Cup. Nothing in the whole of sport is bigger or better.

You missed the bit where I said about international sport and I was talking about sport in the UK. The World Cup was a success here primarily because England played well and played exciting football. If England had slogged their way to draws instead then there wouldn’t have been nearly the same appeal.

But as I said, I was talking about domestically anyway.

And you're a Rugby League supporter??

There was a lot more entertainment in the Russia World Cup, then there has been in the past few International Rugby League events. Anyone with eyes could see it's better.

Certainly the way to raise the profile of RL in the UK would be for England/GB to win an international series against Australia (or the World Cup)
In the early 90's we were nearly there and the game had a much higher profile nationally than it does today. At the time when Offiah was moving from Widnes to Wigan, I was working in Nottinghamshire, and the transfer was certainly a topic of conversation in the canteen. I doubt whether it would be today.

So true, and to be truthful, it's not actually even paid that much attention in the 'heartlands'. It is, I believe, one of the reasons the game struggles to expand and grow and is most definitely the reason for the vast majority of pie in the sky, fantasy expansion posts.

Todays news on the BBC at 6 sport had a report on the irish amateur womens hocky game, (not even our country) but failed to mention Rl at all, this us how far down the pecking we have become that a womens team from another country who are amateurs gets reported and we dont.

It's a disgrace!!!!
Why aren't they at home, cooking the family Sunday dinner?

Very true. When the Super League deal was done in 1995, it led the 6-00 pm BBC news.

Absolute joke that

To give the RFL some credit I thought today's double header was a great idea, it gave the games a 'big game' feel and helped secure a BBC1 slot.

If the games were played separately I reckon we'd have seen about 8k for Saints - Catalan at Leigh or Widnes, and 12/13k at Hudds or Donny for Leeds - Wire. And at least one game would have been shoved on BBC2.

Can imagine that a double header in good weather was good for the stadiums beer sales, so hopefully we can get some rival stadiums competing in future years and paying a fee to host the games.

Actually, no it isn't. The Irish ladies Hockey team had just featured in the World Cup Final, played in London at the end of a 14 day festival of Hockey played in front of enthusiastic crowds in the Capital.
The last official stats had RL participation in the UK sitting at 67,200.....same company, same stat, same year for Field Hockey was 142,600.
[urlhttps://www.statista.com/[/url

Again, we have the RL bubble coming to the fore. Just because I look for the London Broncos results on a Monday morning or watch all the NRL I can, I am fully aware that the game of RL has a dwindling profile in the English public's conciseness. Because I want the game to be better covered, doesn't mean it should be and the media in this instance see the "fairytale" of Ireland making the final on a budget that is a tiny % of that of bigger nations is more newsworthy than the CC Double header...because it's not just a sports news story, there a human interest side to it.

Are you an accountant by any chance? You are often quoting numbers.

EDITED....

Don't beat yourself up Barnaby, I enjoy your responses to the flatcappers.

so why not have it reported on BBC sport, they showed it live on BBC1 then choose to ignore it in favor of an amateur sports team from another country.

thats all well and good but surely the human interest story of the little french minnows overturning the mighty all conquering saints is newsworthy on a channel that 2 hours early showed the game on its prime channel. they also reported a Scottish soccer friendly surely that could have been given the boot instead if airtime was tight. People say RL is paranoid but just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you.

Did you actually watch the gripping match between Australia and England in the 2017 World Cup Final? Did you actually watch the match between Tonga and Samoa in the same series? Or the match Tonga vs New Zealand?

I am compelled to ask: do you really watch any international rugby league?

If he's more interested in Wendyball, why is he even commenting about a rival sport on RL forums?

I watched the Lebanon vs France fixture where the French were embarrassed by a team of third rate Aussies, that one was good.